Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment Reaches Europe On August 20th

Bandai Namco have announced a European release date for Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. The game will be available as a download title on August 20th. You can view new screenshots of the game below.

Now I wish they had gotten Atlus to help on this so they can actually have that kind of thing instead of “Sit on park bench and press ORR over and over again”.

Keine

Nope, if Atlus did help then most of the support will be on NA and they pretty much dont care about EU whatsoever…

Aristides

Was a physical release too much to ask for?

http://hanzoadam.tumblr.com/ Hanzoadam

Apparently so,

Aristides

;_;

http://hanzoadam.tumblr.com/ Hanzoadam

I’m sick of Sony pushing Digital releases and most of the time they are more than they are in stores, Well here in the UK anyway.

Then the memory cards for the Vita are really expensive.

Sony is pushing for Digital and then making it really expensive for memory ¬_¬

Aristides

They should know we have to by the memory cards anyway so they should just give us the key physical copies @_@ did Soul Sacrifice delta even have a physical release?

darke

Delta only had an Asia/English physical. EU+NA were both digital only.

And the fact the digital versions are cheaper then the RRP of the physical copies is supposed to account for the extra cost of the memory card. But of course, who buys physical at RRP price anyway?

ZEROthefirst

This is Namco Bandai pushing for digital because of a niche title coming to a low selling console. Please get your facts straight before posting.

natchu96

Oh, I can afford the memory cards if I don’t buy too many games (curse you lack of third party support!)

MY issue is that I don’t live in the same country as my PSN account atm and credit card region restriction for US accounts is a pain in the ass. That probably lessens my memory card expenses as well come to think of it :/

darke

I’ve found that the extra cost to buy US PSN cards (about USD3 for every USD50 card) is more then easily offset by the fact I can buy two digital games from the US PSN for every one physical game sold in a store locally. :(

I avoided it for a couple of years, but honestly if you’re playing on a playstation system (and especially if you’ve got the trifecta of PS3/PS4/Vita), there’s no reason not to get and use a US PSN as your primary account. :(

natchu96

This is, like a game about an anime adapted from a light novel adapted from a web novel. That’s kinda popular in Japan despite poor writing in the first two arcs but still. I imagine going on excursions with the small army of heroines in this series isn’t exactly as big of a thing outside of Japan.

I can’t speak for SAO popularity in the US since I don’t live there, but I was honestly surprised that they localized this at all. The game is surprisingly solid for what it’s worth, but it doesn’t really look it.

darke

So writing. Very cliche. Much bad.

It is a bit of an odd choice to localise, but there does seem to be a significant fanbase in the west and English-speaking-Asia for them to go the effort of localising it. Plus it’s not something that’s ‘overly erotic’ like a lot of the more otaku targeted games.

If it sells well I guess it’s possible we’ll see more of these odd ports. Over the last year, it certainly feels like the Japanese companies are realising that there’s a decent enough market in the west for otaku games that it’s worth the effort of a port and digital release as well.

http://hanzoadam.tumblr.com/ Hanzoadam

By the time I finally get my Asia copy from Play-asia I may as well have waited for this (though UK is digital only and I want to save memory)

iGlen

When is the US release? I keep getting July but no exact date

Taedirk

Still “whenever we feel like it this summer”. EU was supposed to be July but we see that’s changed. I would be surprised if NA saw it this month to be honest.

iGlen

I hope they don’t do something like Nintendo did with Smash 4 that they said this summer but it’s coming out October 3rd lol

ZEROthefirst

Sakurai never promised Summer for Smash 4 on the 3DS, he continually said their AIM was for Summer 2014 on the 3DS version. Everyone keeps ignoring this fact.

iGlen

Ahhh I should’ve researched more then, that’s my fault, although I cannot wait for that game haha nor Sword Art Online I’ve been waiting since it was released in Japan

Virevolte

What’s happening? Why is Europe having games?
D… did you just notice us, Japan-senpai!?

Shippoyasha

Tactical Imouto Action.

GH56734

So… no more “penetrations”?

natchu96

We’ll miss you, SAO:HF innuendo jokes.

I need to go find myself an active gaming forum of this game and start a Whose Line Is It thread right now.

GamerLegend

Nooo, why august of all months(should have been july since I’m free) with other releases coming that month and september closing in.

Keine

IKR Uni starts for me on August… and i dont touch my vita during the semester so i guess ill have to wait till late november till i actually play the games… :/

But all these games coming out on Aug/Sep…

Strawberry Starlet

I’m a bit concerned about this translation. Looks a bit stiff to me. I’m guessing this may be due to coming from the Asia version?

Ragnawind

no, the english NA/EU version uses a new translation from the Asian release. Normally, the ones revealed earliest are the worst parts of translation, also.

Kornelious

I thought it was supposed to come it in July…..in Europe…..which means we STILL don’t have a release date for the U.S!

I hope it doesn’t come out in August too, I already have enough games in August and only like two to get in July (Since everyone seems to hate July) Your killing me Bamco! X(

Shiki

It’s funny because Europe release dates get announced earlier sometimes, especially from Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai, but then the NA release gets announced soon after, with the release being at the same week as the Europe release or even earlier.
So, I’m guessing SAO will be available in US on the 19th. No need to thank me. ^^

Kornelious

That does make sense, and is actually quite smart on bamco’s part.

I mean it’s the perfect time to release it because there are NO other games coming out on that particular date that would out-shine SAO, and probally cost buyers a lot of money causing them to have to not buy the game…….Well there is that one little game but I doubt anyone even knows about it….I think it was called, TALES OF XILLIA 2! X(

Sarcasm aside, thank you for the estimate though :P

vault2049

I need to tell you to help me buy my next lottery ticket.

Keine

Im pretty sure that TK/KT is a European branch so it does make sense not sure about NB/BN tho…

Ric Vazquez

That would make it a birthday gift for me it it’s released on the 19th XD.

http://amc9988.deviantart.com/ amc99

Is it true they will use different translation from the Asia version? If they did not I’m never gonna touch this game

natchu96

Judging from the screenshot of Agil introducing his shop and staring at my Asian copy sitting in front of me, indeed they do.

Though it’s not like the Asian version is THAT bad anyway. Like second language level English with glaring typos in places, it’s still readable if you’re good at English yourself. Though I’ve seen a lot of people who are bad at English and might just be used to reading that kind of crap, so don’t take my word for it.

darke

I do wonder, given how quickly the asian-English one came out, if it was done “straight from the translator” without any serious QC/editor pass. It’s possible the western one is simply the asian one after it’s had multiple QC/editor/translator passes to clean things up which is why it’s taken longer to be released.

Masa

Download only :(
Dont buy games unless they are on disc.

natchu96

There’s an Asian Engrish version that’s physical.

Engrish as in questionable grammar in places and riddled with typos to the point that it looks kinda like a rush job, but at least it’s only on the level of scrambled Google translate english and not some incomprehensible mess. Tooltips are a bust but it works great.

Shipping is the real problem though.

Alestaos

Ebay im guessing would have that but also any dlc released wouldnt u need a asian PSN to download them for the game?

God

So Klein is meeting Kirito for the first time? Is amnesia heavily involved in this game? And can you actually romace Yui? Isn’t that a little too far even for Japan?

David García Abril

Yui’s arc isn’t romantic in nature, from what I’ve heard.

God

Thank me for that… Good gameplay, no Pedophilic/Semi-incestious route (that i would need to do for the sake of completion), and no tentacle rape, this game is aces on my book!

NegativeZero

This is sub-only right? No English dub? I’ve just been assuming this is the case but haven’t seen a definitive answer anywhere yet.

Kotori Itsuka

Will the eu version include IM?

Ric Vazquez

Edit: The USA release is on the 19th, I’ll have an awesome birthday :D

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